Skin in the Game (19 page)

“Once I announce my decision, the media will settle down,” he said. To a point, anyway.

Standing beside the bed, she gave him a sultry smile and kicked off her shoes. “I’m sure they will.” She crossed the space between them and wrapped her arms around his neck. “But maybe we should consider staying in for the rest of the weekend.”

Cade loosened his tie. “I couldn’t agree more.”

He’d convince her tomorrow that being famous wasn’t as terrible as she thought it would be. Right after he reminded her how fabulous they were together.

***

Cade spent the better part of the following day showing Angie just how good they were together.

In bed…and in the in-room Jacuzzi and on a chair in the dining room.

Now, with less than an hour left before they had to leave for the airport to make their flight, they sat together on the couch, Cade clad in a pair of jeans and Angie wrapped in one of the hotel’s plush white robes, watching the Jets play the afternoon game on the widescreen TV.

They were god awful.

Angie winced as the Jets’ current quarterback was sacked for the sixth time. “Are you sure you want to play for this team?” she asked dubiously. “Their o-line couldn’t block a blitzing linebacker with a barn door.”

“It’s not entirely their fault,” Cade pointed out, sliding his fingers through her hair.

“Maddox is holding onto the ball way too long. They can’t block the defense forever.”

“That’s because none of the receivers are getting open or coming back to the ball.” She looked at him, worry twisting her stomach. “You’d be way safer if you went with the Vikings.”

“You know I can’t do that. I won’t take Warren’s job the way mine was taken from me.”

“Who’s to say he wouldn’t want you to? From what I saw in the paper the other day, his injuries are serious. He’s going to be out at least a season, maybe longer.” Maybe forever.

“Which is exactly what happened to me. Out one season and out of the starting position for good. I don’t blame anyone for it—it’s the game and the business—but I can’t do that to one of my best friends. However long it takes Warren to get back in the game, someone may be standing between him and his job, but it won’t be me. Besides, the Jets are a better career move for me. I’ll be the starter there, not just filling Warren’s shoes until he gets back.”

Angie fell silent. She knew he was right. The Jets needed a solid, experienced quarterback. As bad as they’d looked so far this season, their biggest problem was lack of a solid performer at the helm. A good quarterback who could read and respond to defensive schemes improved the play of everyone else on the team, and Cade was as skilled in that department as any of the big-name quarterbacks in the league. This season was probably a lost cause, given the Jets’ current record, but with all their young talent, she could see them in the playoffs next season and possibly even in the Super Bowl down the line. The Vikings might get him to a Super Bowl this season, but then what?

She ought to be pleased for him. But selfishly, she was thinking only of herself and how much she would hate being subjected on a regular basis to the kind of attention they’d drawn last night. Despite what he’d said, she knew the paparazzi wouldn’t leave him alone once he accepted the Jets’ offer. She’d seen the tabloids; until his injury in the middle of last season, Cade had a staple in their pages, his exploits both on and off the field a source of endless fascination. A lot of that interest had been due to the models and actresses he’d dated, although it didn’t hurt that he looked like a movie star himself. But once he was with the Jets, he’d become a major celebrity in his own right, and the press attention would certainly not go away just because he was dating a nobody like her.

“We should pack and get dressed,” Cade said softly against her hair. “Our flight’s in two hours.”

She nodded. Not that she had much to pack. Just a gorgeous dress she’d never wear again and the shoes to go with it.

“Maybe we should take a shower first, though,” he added, feathering his lips across her temple and down her cheek to her mouth.

Angie found she couldn’t disagree with that suggestion, either.

###

Hot water pounded Angie’s back as she clasped her legs around Cade’s hips. He braced himself against the tiled wall, his hands cradling her ass, holding her steady as he drove his cock inside her. Their mouths met in desperate, hungry kisses. Angie wanted to savor the moment, to commit every nuance of this final coupling to memory, but there was too much to take in at once—the slippery smoothness of his skin, the tangy-sweet taste of his tongue, the relentless cadence of his thrusts. It couldn’t last long enough, and it didn’t. She climaxed before she was ready, fast and hard, shivering despite the steamy heat of the shower. With a groan of surrender, Cade came seconds later.

“Jesus, Ange,” he muttered against her lips when the shudders of his orgasm had subsided enough to permit speech, “what is it about you that I can’t go slow?”

“I didn’t think slow was an option,” she said, her respiration still rapid and uneven. “We have a plane to catch, you know.” She kept her tone light despite her heavy heart.

His head dropped back against the tiles, and he closed his eyes. “Ugh. Don’t remind me.”

She tried to unwrap her legs from around his hips, but he held her steady. “Um, Cade…?”

He opened his eyes, and the intensity of the expression in them made her shiver again.

“I’m not ready for this to be over, Angie.”

She knew he didn’t just mean the weekend. “I’m not, either,” she admitted.

“Then we’ll make it work. I’m not sure how, but there has to be a way.”

He bent his head to kiss her, and she turned her face up to meet him. There was no way to make it work—not in the long run, anyway—but she wasn’t going to argue that point now.

Instead, she was just going to let him kiss her and pretend it would never end.

The first hint of trouble came on Monday morning. Angie started to put her cell phone in her purse before leaving for work, then realized she’d never turned it on again after getting off the plane. When she powered it up, she was greeted by a breathless—and ominous—voice mail message from Rachel.

“Oh my God, Angie, you and Cade were on Entertainment Tonight and the local news.

You’re famous! And by the way, you looked awesome. Where did you get that dress you were wearing? It’s fabulous. Call me a-sap.”

Of course Rachel would think this was fabulous news; most people probably would. Most people wanted their fifteen minutes of fame and would take it any way they could get it. But most people weren’t high school teachers in a small town with a decidedly archaic sense of morality.

Angie closed her eyes and pressed the cool screen of the phone against her forehead. Of all the disasters she’d imagined, this was the last one she’d anticipated.

With a heavy sigh, she deleted the message and pushed the end button on her cell. If she was lucky, the principal and the school board hadn’t seen the news last night. If she were even luckier, people who had seen it wouldn’t mention the fact that she’d clearly been in another city late at night with a man who was both her boss—at least on paper—and, more damning, not her husband.

Except, of course, she wasn’t lucky. As soon as her first student walked through the classroom door, Angie knew she was doomed.

“Oh, Miss Peterson,” Jenna Donnelly squealed, “I saw you on TV last night. You’re so lucky. Cade Reynolds is soooo hot!”

Before Angie could think of a suitable way to respond to this, Trevor Marten, who was not only in her class but played cornerback for the football team, came into the room and gave her a wide grin. “Way to go, Coach Pete!”

Crap, crap, crap.

It took ten minutes longer than usual to get the class settled down because all the students wanted to talk about was her trip to New York and the fact that she’d been on TV. Her second period class was no less interested in discussing the story, and by third period, it was apparent that everyone in the school had either seen the clip or heard about it from someone else. This meant it was no surprise when, in the break between third and fourth period, the school secretary delivered a note from the principal requesting Angie’s presence in his office during lunch.

When fourth period ended, Angie made her way straight to Jim Calhoun’s office. She saw no point in delaying the inevitable. When she arrived, the principal was sitting at his desk, cradling the phone against his shoulder as he shuffled through a stack of papers. He motioned for her to come in and sit down while he continued talking.

“Yes, I know it’s unprecedented.” Pause. “No, I don’t think that’s an accurate assessment of the situation.” Pause. “She’s sitting right here. Let me call you back.”

Oh, great.

The principal set the phone back in the cradle and looked up at her. In his mid-fifties and balding, Calhoun usually projected the aura of a kindly uncle but was quite capable of turning into a drill sergeant when necessary. These qualities made him an effective administrator because no one, from the staff to the students, wanted to disappoint the uncle and turn him into the drill sergeant.

“That was Anton Rodgers’s mother,” he said. “She’s concerned about the example you’re setting for her son. I’ve been fielding calls like that all morning.”

Angie willed herself to remain calm. She’d been expecting this. The fact that it was medieval, sexist, and unfair didn’t matter. “I’m sorry. I had no idea that Cade and I would be photographed or that we’d wind up on TV.”

The principal nodded sympathetically. “I’m on your side here. You’re far and away the best math teacher I’ve ever known, and you’ve done a heck of a job with the football team. I don’t want to lose you, either as a teacher or a coach. Unfortunately, that decision isn’t up to me, but to the board.”

“The board is involved? Already?”

“For every phone call I’ve gotten today from a concerned parent, the school board has gotten three. They’ve called an emergency meeting for tonight at six. And they want you and your union rep to be there to answer the charges.”

Angie stared at her boss in disbelief. She’d known this would be bad; she just hadn’t though it would be this bad. “All this over a picture of Cade Reynolds and me outside a restaurant in New York?”

“It’s more than that, I’m afraid.” Calhoun closed his eyes and pressed his thumb and index finger over them before continuing. “Chuck Donnelly has made some rather disturbing allegations. He claims to have caught you and Reynolds in…well, in flagrante. Several times and in public places. Places where you might easily have been seen by students.”

Oh God. She was an idiot not to have seen that Donnelly would find a way to use this against her. And he didn’t even have to tell an outright lie to make his charges stick.

“Is it true?” the principal asked gently.

Angie grimaced. “He caught us kissing. Once in the school parking lot and once outside the hospital.”

Mention of the hospital made her think of Jake Hanssen, and guilt assailed her. She hadn’t thought of him once that whole weekend. All she’d thought about was herself.

“Just kissing?”

Kissing like we couldn’t wait to get into each other’s pants. “Yes.”

“Well, he made it sound considerably more lurid than that when he told me this morning he was going to report you, but if you’re telling the truth, that may help you with the board. Your personal life really shouldn’t be anyone’s business but your own.”

But it was everyone’s business in a small town, and the worst part of the whole thing was she knew it. This entire situation was perfectly predictable, utterly preventable. Foolish as she’d been to embark on what she’d imagined would be a one-night stand with Cade Reynolds, she’d been orders of magnitude more foolish to agree to spending a weekend with him. Even if they hadn’t gone to New York, what were the chances that they could keep their relationship a secret for any length of time? The answer was slim, fat, and none. And since there was absolutely no likelihood of their affair leading to marriage, which was the only acceptable outcome of an acknowledged sexual liaison for a high school teacher, she should never have allowed any of this to happen.

“Maybe it shouldn’t be, but it is,” she said. “So, am I suspended until the board makes its decision?”

Calhoun frowned unhappily. “I’m afraid so. But I think you have a good chance of being reinstated if you tell the board what you’ve told me. I’ve already registered my objection to the morality clause being used this way and expressed my support for you personally, so that might count for something.”

But Angie had no intention of settling for might. She’d ignored and excused Donnelly’s behavior long enough. It was one thing when she’d thought he was just blowing off steam, venting his disappointment at being passed over as Harvey’s heir apparent. When he went after her job, however, it was time for a new strategy. And if there was one thing she could do, it was devise a kick-ass strategy. One that wouldn’t just get her job back, but change the game for good.

***

“Unbelievable.” Cade stared at Angie, incapable of comprehending what she’d just told him.

“Believe it,” she said, her tone flat. “They suspended me, pending further investigation.

At least my union rep was able to make sure the suspension is with pay. She couldn’t change their minds about anything else, thanks to the calls from concerned parents.”

“Jesus, what century do people think this is?” He clenched his fists, wanting nothing more than to march back through the now-closed doors of the school board’s meeting room and punch every last one of the close-minded bastards.

“They’re just doing their jobs, Cade. They have to answer to the voters, and the voters in Harper Falls don’t like the idea of high school teachers sleeping around.”

“You’re not sleeping around. You’re sleeping with me.”

“To-may-to, to-mah-to,” she said with a shrug.

“I don’t know what’s worse: that they might fire you or that you’re defending them.”

“It isn’t their fault. I signed a contract with a morality clause in it.” She put her hand on his arm. “They haven’t fired me yet, but I have to convince them I’m not going to set a poor example for the students, and that starts and ends with me not getting caught in compromising situations with you.”